Matthias cursed beneath his breath. “He’s fucked in the head. I’ve thought so ever since I hired him, but I felt sorry for him, you know,” he said, speaking in a wheedling tone to the policeman. “He’s been a pain in the ass ever since he got here, but so long as he put in a full day’s—” His breath whooshed out of his body when the man’s flying fist slammed into his gut, bending him double.
The policeman had barely taken the belt from around the worker’s hands before he launched his attack on Matthias. The astonished officer tried to subdue him again but was angrily shoved aside. The worker grabbed Matthias by his collar and threw him against the chain-link fence. The two policemen converged on them and wrestled the man away from the gasping Matthias. It took both of them to get handcuffs on him. He was read his rights as he was led to the patrol car and stuffed into the backseat.
“I’ll nail your ass for this,” Matthias screamed, shaking his pale, soft fist at the man. “I’ll have you charged with assault, you son of a bitch.”
“Better than being a murderer,” the man shouted through the backseat window of the patrol car.
“You’ll have to come down to the station to file the complaint,” the policeman told Matthias. “You, too,” he said to the workers. “We’ll have to get statements from all of you.”
They shook their heads and muttered among themselves as the patrolman joined his partner in the car and drove away.
The crowd dispersed, but Jade hung around, unseen, for almost two hours before Matthias roared away in his Jaguar. The secretary was still at the computer terminal typing when Jade entered the trailer unannounced for the second time that day. “What do you want?” the secretary asked ungraciously.
“Some information, please.”
“Mr. Matthias has left for the day.”
“I’m sure you can help me.”
“With what?”
“I want to know about the man who was arrested this afternoon.”
Her face lost some of its hostility. “You think he’s cute, too, huh?”
“I’m sorry?”
“He’s a hunk. Don’t you think so?”
“Can you help me or not?” Jade asked pleasantly.
The secretary shrugged, then turned her swivel chair back to the computer terminal and called up a file. “I positively creamed the day he came in here asking to fill out an application.”
“What’s his name?”
“Dillon Burke. Beards have always been a real turn-on for me. I’ve got this girl friend—she calls beards womb sweepers. Isn’t that terrible?” She giggled. “They make a man so mysterious, you know?”
“Actually, I’m more interested in his background.”
The secretary scanned the data on the screen. “He started working for Matthias on April twenty-eighth last year.”
“Before that?”
“Doesn’t say. See for yourself. That’s all we’ve got on him. Not even a mailing address.”
She turned the screen toward Jade, who checked the scanty information, then ripped a sheet of paper off a note pad and jotted down the man’s name and social security number. “Exactly what does he do?”
“Everything. To look at him you’d never guess it, but he’s smart and knows what he’s doing. Matthias asks Mr. Burke’s advice all the time, but he’d never admit it.”
Jade assimilated that. “So his allegations were true?”
“Allegations? Oh, you mean what he said about Matthias using crappy materials?”
“Is it true?”
“Look, I don’t see that that’s any of your business. I’ve already told you more—”
“He flirted with me.” Jade had a hunch, and she played on it. “While we were at lunch, Matthias slid his hand under my skirt and asked me to join him in his apartment for the rest of the afternoon.”